ARES puts on another solid show

Last Friday night ARES Promotions returned to Albany’s Washington Avenue Armory, the place where they began a little over three years ago. September 11, 2010 marked the beginning of an unbroken string of solid ARES boxing cards. This was ARES XII, and it proved no exception. The surprisingly small crowd of about 700 made you wonder what other local fans where doing that was deemed more important. But when famed ring announcer Joe Antonacci summoned our attention, we no longer thought about empty seats. The show was on.

The 2010 ARES event came to mind when Nick Brinson (16-1-2, 6 KOs) climbed into the ring to face Lester Gonzalez (12-10-4, 6 KOs) of San Diego, CA, a late substitute for Chris Chatman who failed his pre-fight medical evaluation. It may have been only three years, but anyone who saw Brinson get dropped by Lennox Allen back then, appreciates just how much he’s an entirely different fighter now. He’s always had tons of natural ability, hand speed and real power. But he used to fight with tension, would tire easily, and lacked the mature skills of a champion. He needed time to grow, and someone to teach him. Enter trainer Hector Bermudez, among the most innovative around. Soon Brinson became the NYS middleweight champion, and this past June the WBC international silver middleweight one in a huge ShoBox-televised upset win over Jorge Melendez.

We have to be fair to Gonzalez, though; he’s a crafty veteran who took the fight on essentially no notice. You don’t fight a guy like Brinson without having his picture taped to your refrigerator for a couple of months. Gonzalez knows how to box, as evidenced by the fact that he was still standing at the end of the eight-round affair. As a lefty, he knew he’d be vulnerable to Brinson’s right hand. To make matters worse, the Brinson right travels at warp speed and from more than one angle. You don’t want to be there when it arrives. So Gonzalez did the smart thing by constantly moving to his right, making it nearly impossible for Brinson to get set. But that meant running and frustrating the crowd who wanted Gonzalez to stop and engage. His only hope was to catch Brinson with a surprise left as he would come in to cut off the ring. It never happened and the judges had it right, each scoring 80-72.

The co-main event was a rematch of last July’s ARES XI show in Saratoga. Local favorite Jaci Trivilino (9-6-3, 1 KO) fought two-time world champion Lindsay Garbatt (8-6-2, 3 KOs) of Oshawa, Canada to a thrilling eight round draw that had “re-match” written all over it. So ARES XII made this a 10-rounder for the vacant interim WIBA featherweight title. Styles make fights, as the saying goes, and it sure fits here. Trivilino has the punch volume, Garbatt the power. Trivilino mixes up her punches, goes upstairs and downstairs, while Garbatt just stalks and lands big shots wherever she can.

Some saw an early end in the offing when Trivilino was seriously stung in the opening round. But those familiar with her heart knew better. If Garbatt was going to go home with the Belt, it wouldn’t be done quickly or easily. Win or lose, she’d be feeling Trivilino in the morning.

The fight was close. Two of the judges may have had it 98-92 and 97-93 for Garbatt (the third had it 95-95), but here’s a word about that, in fairness to those judges: in fights like this many rounds can go either way. If you happen to score the close rounds in favor of the same fighter, you can wind up with a final score that wrongly conveys you thought it was a blow out. Having said that, the 95-95 made sense to me.

Trivilino is a warrior; Garbatt is a beast. No matter who won, they’re both amazing. It’s hard to believe that women’s boxing still suffers from a second-class status in the sport. All promoters should be forced to watch Trivilino-Garbatt I and II. These women dispel tenacious stereotypes simply by being in the ring at the same time.

In other action, Utica’s Andy Mejias (14-0, 6 KOs), new to the Bermudez camp, upset the highly skilled Jose Medina (18-14-1, 7 KOs) from Quincy, MA in a unanimous decision; Albany’s Joe Gbolo (1-0-2) and Troy’s Rigoberto Miranda (0-0-2) tried for something more than the draw they earned when they faced each other in their pro-debuts in April. But this end result was the same; Geneva, NY’s Tony Brinson (3-1-2) won a unanimous decision over an incredibly tough Joe Yerdon (2-6-2) from Albany. Brinson earned Fighter of the Night honors for his performance. Finally, Rochester’s Brandon Williams (3-0) defeated Troy’s Joseph Shell (0-1) in a unanimous decision.